GRASSFLAT – A 57-year-old man committed suicide in his home ending an over 10-hour stand-off with law enforcement Thursday night.
Clearfield County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at Douglas Benner’s residence at approximately 12 p.m. Thursday to serve a warrant for his arrest, according to District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr.
Instead Benner refused to comply and barricaded himself in his residence, Shaw stated. Benner made menacing comments to the deputies who noticed he had a homemade bomb on his porch. The deputies backed away and secured the scene, Shaw said. A Special Emergency Response Team was then called to the residence.
The bomb was made with a propane tank, Shaw said. He stated that a robot sent in to check it found a triggering mechanism. They decided this was a hazardous situation and a few nearby residences were evacuated as a precaution. The roadway in that area was blocked to limit access to the area during the entire incident.
At one point during the evening, Benner was going to surrender, but he “had a change of heart,” Shaw said.
On his Facebook page around 11 p.m., Shaw confirmed Benner had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“This was a simple warrant for retail theft and unfortunately it turned into this,” Shaw said when he spoke to the press at approximately 9:30 p.m. At that point, Shaw was confident the situation would be “resolved shortly.”
Electrical service was cut off around that time to encourage Benner to surrender to authorities.
“Upon making entry into the victim’s residence, SERT discovered the victim deceased. HDES (Hazardous Device and Explosive Section) determined the suspected explosive device to be inactive,” stated Trooper Justin Jones of Clearfield-based state police in a news release.
“The investigation continues with assistance of the Clearfield County Coroner’s Office and the Pennsylvania State Police.”
Shaw offered his appreciation on Facebook to all the volunteer firefighters, EMS workers, PennDOT workers and Penelec employees who “helped with this tragic event.”
“This is an unfortunate ending but I am extremely thankful that no law enforcement officers were injured,” he posted.
Benner’s warrant was issued after he failed to appear for a preliminary hearing March 2. Benner had been charged with retail theft.